Facebook Poll Asks if Obama Should be Killed

A blogger noticed the poll on Facebook over the weekend and alerted the U.S. Secret Service of its existence. After contacting Facebook, the poll was removed, as well as the application that allowed for the poll to be posted in the first place. The poll asked whether President Obama should be killed and offered three possible options: Yes, No, Maybe and Yes if he cuts my health care.

Investigators are looking into the poll, obviously set up by someone who is either seeking some serious federal heat - or who is so ignorant as to not understand that such a poll is going to create some problems for them. Of course, the investigation could move beyond just the person who created the poll and also focus on those who may have submitted answers to the poll - especially those who answered yes.

One can't be too surprised about the existence of such content on networks such as Facebook. The platform, in particular, is a true reflection of society at large, including some of its most undesirable and poorly educated elements. As a result, you'll get a little bit of everything from such forums of unfiltered public content.

As the Secret Service continues its investigation, it will be interesting to see what kind of backlash, if any, will come to Facebook, one of the current darlings of all things Internet. Craigslist was hit pretty hard in the media after the Craigslist Killer used the site's Erotic Services category to stalk victims. Facebook really did nothing wrong in this instance, but once the media grabs this one, look for some talking heads to "call" for some misguided action and/or penalties.